73

Have it your way, Dude:

Be brave and bold on Saturday and get fucked.

Or be brave and cautious next Wednesday and prevail.

That’s fucking combat—

It favors some and fucks others.

Why? Well dude, we just don’t know.

Dudeness does not fight,

Yet everything turns out pretty good for it,

Although there’s little it would ask,

It is your answer for everything.

It does not call you at home,

It just comes in through the unlocked door.

Because its beauty is its simplicity,

It does not make plans.

It is because the Dude’s embrace is so generous, his limbs so limber

That everything is fucking interesting to him.

Tao Te Ching: 73

Heroism has two faces:

Courage with caution may conserve life.

But feats of foolhardiness foster death.

Bravery can help, or it can hurt,

And it’s not always easy to anticipate the outcome.

Even the sages recognize the difficulty and danger in this.

Tao does not contend,

Yet it conquers.

It does not speak,

And yet it answers.

It does not summon,

And yet it receives.

Though it slacks, it succeeds.

Its web is porous,

And yet nothing falls from its embrace.